XIV
COSIMO ROSSELLI
1439—1507
Cosimo Rosselli, an artist who was strongly influenced by Benozzo Gozzoli, and who, like that master, chiefly painted frescoes, was the son of a builder, living in the Via del Cocomero. He was born in 1439, and, at the age of fourteen, entered the shop of Neri de' Bicci, an inferior artist who manufactured works of art at a low rate, and drove a prosperous trade, with the help of his sons and brothers and a large number of assistants. When he left Bicci's shop, at the end of three years, Cosimo may have found employment under Benozzo, or worked with Alesso Baldovinetti—who was one of his masters, according to Baldinucci—to whose style his technique and colouring show a marked resemblance. His first dated work, a Madonna and S. Anne, of 1471, at Berlin and another early picture of St. Barbara trampling on a warrior, in the Accademia of Florence, display the angular draperies and harsh tones of the Naturalists, with far less vigour of drawing. But like Benozzo, whom he resembles in his love of architectural detail and homely incident, he is seen to greater advantage in his frescoes. In 1476, he painted the Conversion of S. Filippo Benizzi in the cloisters of the
